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The pair were introduced by Tom at a sports game in 2006 (Image: Getty Images North America)

Katie held hands with Tom throughout the meeting (Image: Reuters)

Tom and Jamie had bonded on the set of 2004 movie, Collateral (Image: Getty Images North America)

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But it wasn’t until August 2013, 14 months after the collapse of her six-year marriage to Tom, that their friendship became something way more flirty, with the pair spotted enjoying an intimate dance at a charity benefit in The Hamptons.

Katie let her hair down and rocked out to Jamie’s 2009 hit, Blame It (On the Alcohol), witnesses told People magazine, and the pair were later pictured looking seriously sweaty, with Katie’s arm draped around Jamie’s shoulders.

But with the Dawson’s Creek actress apparently subject to a five year public dating ban, these two needed to work out a way to throw everyone off the scent.

Step one was for Jamie to go on the defensive, branding the gossip “fake news” and labelling the dating reports “hilarious”.

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After divorcing Tom, Katie was reportedly subjected to a five-year public dating ban (Image: Getty)

Step two involved wigs, and plenty of them.

Unable to dine at fancy restaurants like normal A-list folk, the pair reportedly resigned themselves to meeting up in the privacy of each others' homes, with Katie going incognito in a variety of disguises.

In September 2014 she moved back to Los Angeles from New York, presumably to be nearer to the actor and to make their romantic dinners and sleepovers a whole lot easier.

But the cat was out of the bag in March 2015 when a picture surfaced online of them holding hands in a recording studio.

Jamie immediately tried to dismiss it as just a friendly hangout, telling TMZ, "Oh come on you guys have been trying to make that stick for three years, we're just friends.

"As a matter of fact Anthony Zuiker, creator of CSI, he offered us an animation project and we're working on that.”

"They have been trying to do that for three years - just stories I guess. You just have to respect - that's just part of our lives,” he also said.

But in May 2015, Katie got sloppy and was busted making a seriously soppy phone call to Jamie as she stepped off a flight from New York to LA.

"She called him the minute she got off her plane and said she loved him," an eyewitness told Us Weekly. "She always gushes about how amazing he is. She says he brings joy into the world.”

Was Tom the reason Jamie kept denying it? (Image: Getty)

However, another unidentified pal conveniently surfaced, and tried to stem the tide by insisting there was nothing going on but the rent.

"This is not some intense romance. Jamie and Katie are friends and have been for a long time. They are two adults who are attractive and single, and so apparently conclusions will be drawn," the insider said.

Sadly, those declarations were trumped when yet another pal revealed that former ladies man Jamie “cut his roster” for Katie, and another confirmed things were even more serious, telling OK! magazine, "They are using the L word.”